The present invention relates to a performance information making device and method which are capable of easily creating various variations of accompaniment patterns well suitable for a music piece melody and thereby allow even unexperienced users or beginners to fully enjoy composing a music piece.
There has been known a technique which, in making music piece data (performance information) by combining automatic performance patterns on an automatic performance device or the like, greatly facilitates editing and modification of the music piece data. Such a technique is disclosed in, for example, Japanese patent Laid-open Publication No. HEI-7-104744 that corresponds to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/312,776. The technique disclosed in the HEI-7-104744 publication is characterized primarily by visually displaying a plurality of display elements (e.g., icons) corresponding to a plurality of performance patterns as well as lines specifying order of the performance patterns to be played. The disclosed technique allows a user to designate a desired combination of the visually displayed performance patterns and thereby facilitates user's editing of music piece data.
The performance information making technique disclosed in the HEI-7-104744 publication has the advantage that it provides for easier editing operations to, for example, change the order of the performance patterns. However, the editing requires considerable musical knowledges, which would limit the application of the disclosed technique to relatively experienced users. Therefore, with the disclosed technique, it was difficult for inexperienced users to enjoy composing a music piece.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,024 discloses a technique which uses a bar code scanner to select performance patterns in correspondence with time-varying phases of a performance.